3 Reasons LinkedIn Beats Email

1. Red Velvet Rope - This is a term popularized in the marketing arena by Michael Port. It means there's an exclusive, members-only feel to your marketing. It's not for everyone - and not everyone qualifies. You need to be "in the club." When you reach out to a fellow Group member on LinkedIn, you both are in the club and there's a strong element of peer-to-peer belonging that encourages community, communication, and responsiveness. Can't say that about a cold call or a plain old email!

2. Priority Seal - Most executives and business owners feel overwhelmed by email. When they're not tackling the email monster (click here if you'd like to master your email!), they are wall-to-wall with meetings, phone calls, and their daily dose of dealing with crises. LinkedIn messages DO trigger an email notification but you have the choice of responding via email or via LinkedIn -- and LinkedIn messages (for most of us) are few and far between so they give the impression of being more important, more filtered, and more personally relevant. Think of it as a FedEx envelope arriving in your daily mail. Sure, you can ignore it - you can toss it - you might not get to it for a few days. But chances are greater that you will because of curiosity - a basic trait of human nature.

3. More Attractive Return Address Envelope - LinkedIn messages tend to be shorter than emails - and a shorter note merits a shorter response. You've just given your prospects, clients, and connections a huge "out" because they do NOT need - and probably would not even consider - sending you a long, involved response. If you send a short, succinct note to reconnect with a past client - they'll respond with a short, succinct note and you'll probably use LinkedIn to make plans to connect in a longer format offline (phone call, lunch, coffee, in-person meeting). Yours will be a fast, easy and appealing note to respond to - so your chances of getting a prompt response just went up considerably!

LinkedIn in Action and Results

I have been using LinkedIn to reconnect with old contacts and to connect with anyone signing up for my newsletter. I do this with the LinkedIn for Outlook utility showing if anyone sending me an email (or completing any website form that is emailed to me) has a LinkedIn account. As my connection numbers build, more website visitors, book readers, and subscribers are now asking to connect with me. We’ve also done a few email blasts to our database asking for connections to those who have LinkedIn accounts. Over the last two years we can directly trace a few hundred thousand dollars in speaking/workshop or long term/ongoing consulting fees that started with these (re)connections.

3 LinkedIn Secrets from Jim's Success:

1. As my friend and Speaker Hall of Fame member Dr. Alan Zimmerman likes to say, "your business comes from your business." (He's a guy who enjoys a 92% repeat and referral rate from his client base so he's walking that talk.) Note that Jim Clemmer is also generating his success not ONLY from new connections - but from RE-connections. Try it for yourself and see what conversations you can generate with the folks who already know you, love you, and have given you money in the past.

2. You gotta ask for the connection. Note that Jim's strategy also involved email blasts to his list proactively asking them to connect on LinkedIn. And not just once - but several times over the past 2 years. Remember to make your social media scripts appealing, relevant, and NOT focused on you - but focused on the value you'd like to deliver to your connections.

3. It takes time and there are both direct and indirect benefits. Notice that Jim said, "over the last two years" - not the last 2 weeks or 2 months. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Notice also that he said he could DIRECTLY trace several hundred thousand dollars of new business. That's great - and in addition, Jim has likely generated that much money or more INDIRECTLY, meaning that people didn't hire him FROM LinkedIn but BECAUSE they saw something he contributed, received a connection update, or otherwise "bumped into" Jim's name, content, ideas, website, blog or network - and were prompted to engage with him.

Just came across this Facebook post from someone who shall remain nameless to protect the self-absorbed.

On the surface, this will look innocent enough.

But a treacherous marketing gaffe lies in wait...

Another victim is about to fall prey to the Social Media disease known as...

[Drum roll]...

Social Me...

Check it out and let's discuss...

While I really value having connections on Facebook, I'm noticing that I'm not as active on my personal page and decided that focusing on my Public page will be the best use of my time and allow me to really connect more with people. So I am in the process of deactivating this page - if you haven't already, please 'like' my community page so we can still connect there: [link]

What's wrong with this picture?

Let's color-code it and you'll see how NOT to confuse "Social Me" with "Social Media"...

While I really value having connections on Facebook, I'm noticing that I'm not as active on my personal page and decided that focusing on my Public page will be the best use of my time and allow me to really connect more with people. So I am in the process of deactivating this page - if you haven't already, please 'like' my community page so we can still connect there: [link]

If you were keeping score, you noticed that there were 10 - TEN! - mentions of "I, Me, My" in this two-sentence post.

One of the games I like to play with my marketing coaching clients is to take ANY piece of copy - a sales letter, a web page, a prospecting email - and totally REMOVE ALL "I, Me, My" language and translate it 100% into YOU and YOUR language, which is much more compelling to most of your prospects, readers, and fans.

Here goes...

The level of activity on this page has diminished so that the value you're getting is not at the level you deserve. Please click over to this new page [link] where you can tap into a much more active community, ask your questions, take part in value-rich discussions, get the answers you need PLUS you'll get access to valuable downloads, resources, and tools. See you on the other side!

Social Media...

Did you notice the new score?

Let's turn on the colors again and see how you did...

The level of activity on this page has diminished so that the value you're getting is not at the level you deserve. Please click over to this new page [link] where you can tap into a much more active community, ask your questions, take part in value-rich discussions, get the answers you need PLUS you'll get access to valuable downloads, resources, and tools. See you on the other side!

Old score (Social Me): 0-10. You lose!

New score (Social Media): 7-0. You win!

What do you think? Please use the COMMENTS area below to share your advice, insights and recommendations when it comes to Social Media vs. Social Me...

Ah, heck - I can't resist giving you THIS one...

And one more for good luck:

p.s. As you review these, please share YOUR advice, insights and recommendations in the COMMENTS section for each of these blogs. Even if the posts are older, I always see new comments as you post them -- so I'd love to generate discussions with YOU on how you can max out these ideas in 2013 for YOUR business!

As a marketing coach, clients often ask me about getting featured and quoted in the media.

My short answer is simple: Subscribe to PR Leads (at $99/month, it's the best money you can spend on PR, bar none.)

Second question clients ask is, "How do I get the journalist to email me or circle back with me once the article is published or posted online?"

The short answer is - forget it. Journalists need you as a source and then they move on to their next assignment, hardly ever looking back, much less following up with egomaniacal entrepreneurs who drool over seeing their name in print (or electrons).

So you can chase these poor reporters and the only thing you'll do is ensure they NEVER use you as a source EVER again.

OR you can offer to help them.

Here's the template:

===

Mike,

Wanted to circle back with you to see where things landed with your fabulous story.

As you know, the LAST thing I ever want to be called is a "social media expert" or social media marketing coach. Yech. That ain't what I do and it aint' who I am. Ain't. Ain't. Ain't.

There, that feels better... now what I AM is a social media enthusiast. I love it and I think it's a great tool to add to your internet marketing game plan.

Is it perfect for everyone? No.

Is it useful for some? Yes.

Is it vital for a few? Certainly.

So... to help you ramp up the effectiveness of your social media efforts, you need to know what to say and how to say it.

And most outreach "templates" that these social media tools offer you are pretty weak. Things like the standard LinkedIn connection invite, the Facebook friend connection, and others. No worries, you're about to get hooked up.

LinkedIn:

Quick Marketing 101 review - Do people care about YOU or do they care about themselves? Yes - that's right! 5 points. They don't give a rat's tushie about you and they care 100% about themselves.

Now look at the standard LinkedIn connection invite:

===

I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.

===

Hmmmm... how do you feel about being "added"? And who cares about "my professional network"? This is all wrong.

Here's your new template - notice the switch in focus and benefit. Plus I added a new line with even more value. Finally, I prevented someone from clicking the "I don't know them" button which LinkedIn penalizes you for:

===

I'd like to put my professional network on LinkedIn at your disposal. After we connect, if there's someone to whom you'd like a personal introduction, just let me know.

If you prefer not to connect at this time, please archive this message now. Thanks in advance.

===

Facebook:

You can't really go wrong here but I still have a useful connection "script" for you.

Let's say you notice that through your Facebook "Suggestions" (currently on the right side of your home page immediately below the section labelled "Requests"), there are people listed with labels like "37 mutual friends," "51 mutual friends" and so on.

You can connect with these folks, but chances are excellent that they might not know you from Adam - or Eve. Thus, you need a fun, approachable, and appealing script to drop in when you want to click on them to connect. After you click "Add as Friend" you'll want to click the link in the dialog box that says "Add a personal message" and type:

===

Vanessa - Wow! We have 37 mutual friends. We GOTTA connect simply so we can talk about all these people!

They're used by spammers, affiliate marketers, and MLM salespeople. Just awful.

Not sure how to set that up? Good. You don't need to know. Didn't I just specifically ask you NOT to do it? No matter how "cool, valuable, friendly" you think they are - DON'T do it.

This next bit isn't a script, it's more of a practice. It's called ENGAGEMENT. Rather than simply pumping out clever tweets and retweeting others, build relationships. My formula for social media success (as a social media enthusiast, remember!) is the 3 R's formula:

Resources - Yes, certainly share your blog posts, your micro-ideas, and retweets of cool links and thoughts from others. Your first week on Twitter, this is fine if it's all you do. The second week, though, you better get busy with...

Relationships - Build relationships with other users you follow, admire, or resonate with. Use public @ messages or private DMs to connect with them, comment on their latest contributions, or thank them for an idea. Be detailed - so don't just tweet "@dnewman Hey - Cool!" Instead tweet this: "@dnewman David, awesome ideas on your blog about those social media scripts. Thanks!!!"

Reciprocity - Once you get the Twitter thing going, you've built some good relationships and you're seen as a valuable resource and contributor, it's only natural that people will start to promote you with some reciprocal love. They'll respond to your ideas, they'll Retweet you, they'll promote you in their #followfriday recommendations, and they'll scratch your back as you scratch theirs.